Wrapped up in a tale of the world's destruction.

Moe’s Not Enough Anymore

I like moe and I’m not going to pretend that every now and then I don’t become infatuated by a character or two (<3 Felli) but lately I’ve been noticing that 1. this is becoming less and less the case and 2. having moe characters in a show isn’t enough to get me to support it. I’ve kind of stopped caring about a character’s appearance beyond whether their design isn’t repulsive; they don’t need to have some sort of gimmick (i.e TWIN DRILLS or zettai ryouiki) to get me to like them any more (not that that doesn’t help.) The same could be said for typical moe character traits. There are a few reasons why moe is having less of an effect on me than before.

Moe Is Everywhere

Every season you can count on the fact that at least 25% shows are going to have some form of moe characters in them and that at least half of these characters are going to be in high school. Then there’s the fact that for the past 2 years I’ve been watching whatever I could get my hands on including these moe + highschool combos. Just like if you watch enough violent shows you’ll become desensitized to violence, if I watch enough moe shows it’s only natural that after some point the moe’s going to have less of an effect on me. It’s just the fact that I’ve already had my numerous doses of moe characters that I still <3 to this day; seeing NEW MODELS with ORIGINAL PARTS still doesn’t change the fact that I’ve seen most of what the “moe” theme in anime has to offer. Unless they simply present blobs of the pure essence of “moe” (oh wait, they already did that. PURE LOVE.), I want something with a bit more variety than clumsy girl falls over and I feel pity/THE URGE TO LAUGH PROTECT. Which brings me to my next point:

Moe’s A One Trick Pony

There’s only so much you can actaully do with moe before it gets stale (at the very least to some people) or irritating. After a certain point the dim-witted ditzy character stops being cute and starts being annoying. If they simply stay like that throughout the entire show, then will you still like them as a character? Not me. It’s kind of like commercial advetising: the basic message for moe is LIKE THIS CHARACTER like the basic message for advertising is BUY THIS PRODUCT, no matter how many bells and whistles you decorate it with. In my opinion, moe needs to be a way to make a character appealing at first glance so that after we’ve grown to like that character we can identify with them more when the emotional parts come along, or even just maybe having them do something that isn’t solely done for the sake of being moe. Clannad (eventually) did this well, as did Toradora. Hell, even Azumanga Daioh did it (being more quirky and amusing than moe). This kind of thing works and doesn’t seem as patronizing as the basic moe template where I’m expected to like a character based on the facial expressions they make.

It’s Not The Moe, It’s Me!

But this is all kind of subjective anyway. Through my development as an anime watcher I’ve come to look for different things in the shows I watch and though I still remain fairly open minded, moe’s one of the few themes that I just don’t find interesting anymore. I’m just looking for something a bit more substantial than moe these days. I’m sure that I do (and will) appreciate moe in controlled doses where it’s used to make a character endearing (again, <3 Felli) but otherwise as a stand-alone tool to get me interested in a series, it’s getting to the point where it’s not enough.

Moe is an amazing phenomenon that only (I think) anime is capable of invoking in viewers because of its visual nature. To lose interest in moe is to lose interest in anime!

Alright, fine.

I do not whether moe is a bad thing in anime but I have to say that anime shows are capable of surviving, even without using moe to invoke affectionate feelings in the audience. Maybe I am wrong, but I believe most works of the past are better preachers in good ol’ storytelling and they are pretty entertaining even without moe.

Try watching less moe-ish shows (they tend to be older works?), just good ol’ storytelling, and allow your moe tank take a break. Maybe by doing so, you can go back to appreciating moe orientated shows.

Moe has been watered down to be so derivative and superficial now. In a lot of cases, it is all little more than just the character designs and the basic behavioural patterns (dojikko, tsundere, etc). The advertising analogy is a really good way to put it, since it does feel like in a lot of the worst cases that you’re having “you should like this character” barked at you (I had that strong feeling with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu last year, which is why I almost felt repulsed by it before the end). There are cases where moe is more about rapport, growth and genuine charm, as I wrote about recently [/shameless self plug]. I know you didn’t think it was a form of moe, but I still consider it to be moe, just not so manufactured and formulaic.

@The Animanachronism
Yeah, but if you’ve never been affected by it to begin with, then you’re sensitivity to it will probably be just as low as it always has been. It’s a bit like diminishing returns. If you expose yourself to a crapload of it, it’ll probably never induce the same response as the first time, because people just naturally get tired of the same thing over and over. Anyway, the only reason why you’d expose yourself to a crapload of it to begin with was if you really liked your first experience with it.

@Baka-Raptor
If we don’t we lose respect and credibility. Which is an awful awful thing.

@lelangir
What jpmeyer said.

@animekritik
K-On is crappy.

@The Animanchronism
I’d doubt it, as if you haven’t seen many school-anime/moe and the like yet, it’s probably just not what your interested in. Perhaps you have Extra Moe Tolerance Syndrom. Or something.

@The Soujourner
When moe becomes a requirement for an anime to succeed, I will burn KyoAni to the ground. Because it will ALL be KyoAni’s fault.

@Aizen
Maria+Holic wasn’t moe, it was just lesbians and traps, neither of which are moe IMO.

@Sorrow-kun
Does anyone actually know where the word “moe” originated from? Perhaps then we’d be able to define moe. Though at this point in time I think it’s too late.